Whether you find support in the form of recovery meetings, online forums, or in therapy, finding a place to share and get support from other people will greatly increase your chances of success. If you are looking for support in your drug and alcohol journey, feel free to reach out for support. Pacific Psychotherapy offers drug and alcohol counseling to help you moderate or quit in Santa Cruz, or online anywhere in California.
Moderation can open a window for you to defuse the emotional challenges that create the craving for relief that alcohol provides. While you are taking a break from drinking or limiting your drinking, you have an opportunity to develop better coping skills, address your drinking behaviors, and find healthier ways of dealing with the issues that drinking is covering up. If you use alcohol to manage stress or self-medicate, fear of how you’ll cope without alcohol might hamper your efforts to regain control of your drinking. If you consider alcohol as a coping strategy, then it makes sense why heading straight to abstinence would be terrifying. The World Health Organisation (WHO) undertook research in 1996 with 1,490 heavy but non-dependent drinkers at ten differing locations across the world who had each received a short intervention relating to alcohol. The group was monitored nine months after receiving the support and information and it was discovered that the group had managed to curtail their consumption by one third.
So, how can you tell whether moderation or abstinence is a better goal for you? The paper also found a significant interaction between the age of study subjects and their mortality risk. While there wasn’t much of a difference in risk between younger and older groups who drank moderately, younger people in the study had greater mortality risks than the older ones at high consumption levels.
- If you or a loved one are struggling with alcohol abuse or addiction, recovery is possible through professional drug and alcohol rehab centers.
- Fortunately for us, some recent research about Moderation Management and a newly developed website application component introduced me to some new evidence regarding moderate alcohol drinking that will allow us to look even more deeply into the problem.
- Proactively cutting back on drinking can start to illuminate how drinking less can give you more, and create the mental clarity to identify your goals and values.
Research by psychologist Stanton Peele also suggests that individuals regularly quit their substance addictions through moderating their consumption, usually through a “mindfulness-mediated process.” Mindfulness can be a therapeutic tool to separate people’s identities from their addiction. This idea does not suggest charles kelley shares emotional track as his goodbye to alcohol that recovery is as simple as “mind-over-matter,” but Peele believes that people can set an intention to quit in line with their values without the need for inpatient or outpatient treatments. These answers will vary from individual to individual, and your choice of moderation vs. abstinence is a personal one.
History of SMART Recovery
For some, their decision to cut back on or abstain from drinking is connected to a desire to be healthier, save money, or reestablish their views on their alcohol consumption. These are all valid reasons, and many can accomplish their goals without needing a treatment center. However, a thin line can divide when it’s appropriate to seek treatment or when moderation or abstinence is enough. While research shows long-term benefits to abstinence, this approach can leave out those who want to change their drinking habits but are not ready to abstain completely. Many treatment facilities require that their “clients” remain substance-free, which may deter those wanting to adapt their relationship with alcohol. Support groups based on sobriety, like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), find success through fellowship.
One study found that among those who did not complete an abstinence-based (12-Step) SUD treatment program, ongoing/relapse to substance use was the most frequently-endorsed reason for leaving treatment early (Laudet, Stanick, & Sands, 2009). A recent qualitative study found that concern about missing substances was significantly correlated with not completing treatment (Zemore, Ware, Gilbert, & Pinedo, 2021). Unfortunately, few quantitative, survey-based studies have included substance use during treatment as a potential reason for treatment noncompletion, representing a significant gap in this body of literature (for a review, see Brorson, Ajo Arnevik, Rand-Hendriksen, & Duckert, 2013). Additionally, no studies identified in this review compared reasons for not completing treatment between abstinence-focused and nonabstinence treatment.
Does Drinking in Moderation Help or Hurt the Long-Term Health of Your Brain?
AA was established in 1935 as a nonprofessional mutual aid group for people who desire abstinence from alcohol, and its 12 Steps became integrated in SUD treatment programs in the 1940s and 1950s with the emergence of the Minnesota Model of treatment (White & Kurtz, 2008). The Minnesota Model involved inpatient SUD treatment incorporating principles of AA, with a mix of professional and peer support staff (many of whom were members of AA), and a requirement that patients attend AA or NA meetings as part of their treatment (Anderson, McGovern, & DuPont, 1999; McElrath, 1997). This model both accelerated the spread of AA and NA and helped establish the abstinence-focused 12-Step program at the core of mainstream addiction treatment. By 1989, treatment center referrals accounted for 40% of new AA memberships (Mäkelä et al., 1996). This standard persisted in SUD treatment even as strong evidence emerged that a minority of individuals who receive 12-Step treatment achieve and maintain long-term abstinence (e.g., Project MATCH Research Group, 1998). The choice between harm reduction vs. abstinence is most often made by an individual after careful reflection and introspection.
Is abstinence the only way?
These health risks can be severe, and some even contribute to alcohol-related mortality rates. On the other hand, upon cutting back on drinking, many heavy drinkers experience improvements in sleep, cognitive function, weight loss, productivity, interpersonal relationships, energy, and overall mental health. Your specific health goals, health risks, and medical history may play a role in your choice to either moderate or abstain from what causes alcohol use disorder alcoholism alcohol. This is especially true if you suffer from specific health conditions or are cutting back to avoid increased risk of specific health consequences. Rarely, if ever, do heavy drinkers choose to give up alcohol for good until they are convinced by their own experience that moderation is simply not attainable. What’s more, they refuse to define themselves as “alcoholic/addict” or give in to pressure to attend AA meetings.
If you don’t consider yourself an alcoholic or don’t feel comfortable labeling yourself one, practicing moderation helps you avoid having that discussion when you’re not in the mood. You don’t have to attend AA meetings and introduce yourself as an alcoholic, and you don’t have to answer questions at parties or social gatherings when people notice you aren’t drinking. Alcohol moderation management is possible with medications like naltrexone, which can limit cravings. It doesn’t work for everyone—but for some it is the most effective and workable solution to problem drinking. As we get back to more social events, business meetings, and situations where you may have abused alcohol in the past, it may be time to consider how you can achieve moderation. Once you are able to control how much you drink, you may find that you’re better able to enjoy family gatherings, social events, and work events.
One Glass a Day? The Impact of Low Volume Drinking on Mortality Risk
Some people find it’s still too overwhelming to be around alcohol, and it’s too hard to change their habits. If one drink still leads to several more, attempting moderation isn’t the safest choice. People who have a more severe drinking problem and find moderation difficult to maintain often do better with abstinence. You’ve probably been told that controlled drinking is simply not a safe or realistic option for anyone who’s developed a drinking problem. And that it is a setup for failure based on the assumption that drinking problems always progress and inevitably gets worse. According to this view, lifelong abstinence is the one and only way to deal successfully with a drinking problem.
Sara explained to her therapist that she didn’t think she could quit drinking altogether. When out for a nice dinner or attending a get-together, she still wanted the freedom of having a drink or two. Her counselor agreed that limiting her drinking could be a good solution and they set a goal for Sara to cut back her consumption to these special occasions only. While it can seem daunting to practice abstinence, limit your alcohol use, or seek treatment, you can find comfort in the fact that there is no definitive “correct” way to get where you want to be. A moderation approach may be recommended for those who prefer a gradual approach to progress.
Alcohol Moderation or Abstinence?
A focus on abstinence is pervasive in SUD treatment, defining success in both research and practice, and punitive measures are often imposed on those who do not abstain. Most adults with SUD do not seek treatment because they do not wish to stop using substances, though many also recognize a need for help. This narrative review considers the need for increased research attention on nonabstinence psychosocial treatment of SUD – especially drug use disorders 11 ways to curb your drinking – as a potential way to engage and retain more people in treatment, to engage people in treatment earlier, and to improve treatment effectiveness. Despite significant empirical support for nonabstinence alcohol interventions, there is a clear gap in research examining nonabstinence psychosocial treatment for drug use disorders. Future research must test the effectiveness of nonabstinence treatments for drug use and address barriers to implementation.
Treatment professionals can advise if supervised detox is required, and provide next steps tailored to your needs. Multiple versions of harm reduction psychotherapy for alcohol and drug use have been described in detail but not yet studied empirically. However, to date there have been no published empirical trials testing the effectiveness of the approach. Lack of consensus around target outcomes also presents a challenge to evaluating the effectiveness of nonabstinence treatment.